STOP Leading Media Lives

(STOP) Leading MEDIA LIVES with
MEDIA LIES

Enlightened masters tell us that we are
part of the cosmic essence and this body is a temporary abode for us and
our goal in life should be to seek the divinity that is in fact within
us. They also tell us that our mind is what stands between us and
divinity. Each time we take birth, we occupy our minds with enough
mundane things and accumulate enough negative karma and this keeps going
on and on for most people till (after possibly million such births) one
tires out and somehow acquires the intelligence to surrender (back) to
God.

Surrendering the self to the divine being the
ultimate goal, is there even a possibility of that
happening when even what you can call as your 'self' is an amalgamation
of daily digital junk showered on you from every direction almost every
moment of your conscious time.

Whether you want it or
not, whether you accept it or not, whether you are aware of it or not,
this is what happens to anybody that spends more than a few minutes
daily, watching TV, reading newspaper or surfing the net. You really
need to think seriously if this is what you want to spend this
precious lifetime with.

Be aware of what is
entering your inner space through your eyes and ears and how much of
time you are spending unconsciously letting yourself being
a conduit for the media to create your SELF-your thoughts, your
opinions, your emotions that will actually be influencing the way you
function in your day-to-day life is being driven by the media. It serves
their interest (and very existence) to make you a product created by
the media, for the media and living off the media.

We will
take a simple example, with a recent news item, to show how even this
relatively minor news item was actually created by the media and
how it was carried forward to occupy atleast half an hour of your time
every day (possibly more if you are a serious cricket lover) from May
13th 2010 till May 20th 2010. Thats about one week of at least half an
hour of daily news (possibly more, considering how many times a news
item is repeated every hour, 24x7) that was created where none
existed.

The recent news item is - Few Indian cricket
players went to have dinner at a restaurant in the West Indies after
their match, which they unfortunately lost. Any of you who had watched
TV during this period would never have missed this. How this
insignificant event can be fed into your inner space
can be seen from some of the below news excerpts from some popular news
sites. These are merely excerpts and I am highlighting some of the
colorful words that were used to create the impression that they intend
to convey to you and hence shape your opinions and in fact, possibly
your mood for the rest of the day.

Indian team in pub brawl
- Indian Express - Thu May 13 2010, 15:49 hrshttp://www.indianexpress.com/news/indian-team-in-pub-brawl/618410/Team India has been booted out of the T20 World Cup
in West Indies and they went pubbing thereafter to drown their sorrows. ... According to
reports, six Indian players went to a local pub, Tequila Joe's, on
Wednesday night where fans started taunting and abusing them for their
failure to reach the semifinal of the Twenty20 World Cup. Pacer Ashish
Nehra and Zaheer Khan apparently lost their cool and got into a
confrontation with the fans and Yuvraj had to intervene to calm down his
teammates, reports claimed. Yuvraj himself, however, denied the
reports. "There was no fight, not even an argument," Yuvraj wrote on his
Twitter page, asking the media not to "make up stories".

Speaking to The Hindu after the team returned home
on Friday morning, Biswal said: “First of all Tequila Joe's is not a pub, it's a Mexican restaurant that also sells liquor.
It's like many other restaurants in the West Indies. The Indian players
reached the restaurant around 9.30 p.m. The Sri Lankan and New Zealand
cricketers, too, were there.'' Biswal added that some American Indians
then started abusing the Indian players. “Ashish Nehra asked them not to
abuse the players. The bouncers of the restaurant threw the American
Indians out,'' said Biswal.

6 players to get
show-cause notices - The Board of Control for
Cricket in India will issue show-cause notices on Tuesday to six
players, including senior members Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan, for
their alleged involvement in a pub brawl in St Lucia after
India’s humiliating exit from the World T20 in the West Indies. The Board decided to crack the whip on these players after a hue and cry was raised
in the media about the brawl on the night the team crashed out of the
tournament following their third straight defeat in the Super Eights.

Six Indian players axed after Pub Brawl - India.com - May 17,
2010 http://www.india.com/sports/cricket/six-indian-players-axed-after-pub-brawl_7709As if the T20 debacle wasn't enough, six players
from the Indian cricket team have been given the boot and have been
issued show cause notices for their involvement in a bar fight in St Lucia in the West
Indies. The show cause notice has been served to Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer
Khan, Ashish Nehra, Rohit Sharma, Piyush Chawla and Ravindra Jadeja.

The
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will issue show cause
notices on Tuesday to four Indian cricketers.... The reports were promptly
denied by Yuvraj on his Twitter page ... After returning home, Nehra too
denied there was a brawl in which the players were involved. "No one
said anything to us. There were many fans from all over the world from
different teams but nothing happened with us," Nehra had told reporters.
"As far as my knowledge goes, no untoward incident happened with us. We went to have our
dinner there and were watching the West Indies and Australia match. Rest
of the things that I am listening now, I have no knowledge of
anything," he had said. (With PTI input)

Players explain their
position in pub brawl incident - Times Of India - May 20, 2010 - http://t20wc.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5954678.cmsFour of the six Indian players, who were asked by
the Indian cricket board why action should not be taken against them for
their role in the St Lucia pub incident in the West Indies, say they
only reacted when the fans got abusive. The four either met a senior
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) official individually or
talked to him on phone to protest their innocence. "Going by what they
graphically described to me, the incident absolves them of wrongdoing,
though it is for the BCCI President Shashank Manohar to take a final
call," the official said.

You see, the Indian Players
went to have dinner and a few drunken people might have shouted
something to express their disappointment over their recent losses and
this lot was most likely asked or made to leave by the security
personnel of the restaurant. That was all that was there.

However, your mind was made to
get the impression that the Indian players went to a pub, got drunk and
had a brawl. All TV stations, newspapers and websites associated with
India carried this news continuously as though it was a incident of
national prominence. As a result of this, BCCI even had to issue a show
cause notice to some of these players had "met a senior Board of Control for Cricket in India
(BCCI) official individually or talked to him on phone to protest their
innocence."

For a week, the TV channels
had their entertainment and income at everybody's expense and many
individuals would have spent their time reacting to this and would have
even inadvertentlycontributed to
their coverage and of course, income.

A typical day is packed
with some sensationalist topic.In addition, nowadays, most days have
some expose with each channel claiming exclusivity over the same
incident. The foremost (and most likely the sole) intention of most
channels is to increase their TRP ratings and hence their revenue
potential. The next in their agenda will be to convey a certain point of
view (that will be beneficial to them).

Why do we need to be part of this? Why do we need to spend
hours daily, watching various people discussing the same news. If you
watch just 5 minutes of news every day, you are likely to know all that
really need to know. An average person works 8 hrs a day, sleeps some 6
hrs, spends about 3 hrs eating and on personal grooming etc and maybe a
couple of hours in traveling in some way or the other. So, assuming that
19hrs are spent in doing unavoidable things, we only have 5 hours to
ourselves, our family and for our other interests.

This is our personal time and it is this time that we need
to use to grow and create a better inner space. If we were to use this
time to watch TV or read newspapers or surf the net for more induced
activity, not only is our time lost but we are also opening our
inner self to be polluted. It is like inviting our enemy to
invade us, occupy us and consenting to be enslaved to a life of nothing
but chaos, greed and lust.

Children watching TV are forever tempted to
buy some product. Teenagers and youth are not only tempted continuously
to buy things but are also subjected to various forms of negative
imagery that shape their entire character. Before becoming adults, the
cell memories would have fully absorbed these conditionings and as
adults we are bound to crave for more. Watching TV serials daily can completely damage our
emotional well being.The first thing
most people do when they enter their homes is to switch on the TV. Some
cant do without reading the newspaper fully in the morning. We are
bound to think that we are somehow part of every major event reported
when in fact we are actually part of none.

The whole
life of a person is orchestrated by the media. The media feeds us mostly
lies. Even what you see in a business daily or magazine or tv could be a
media lie or at best be a product placement http://nithyanandaforever.webs.com/apps/blog/

The danger is absolutely real and in fact
conspicuously all pervasive. Like a puppet on a string, almost every
decision we make in our daily lives is controlled by what is portrayed
through the media either as news or through plain product
advertisements. We are living like comfortable slaves and manipulated
into following a media agenda.

Stop living a media life filled with media
lies. Reclaim your inner space from from this medial hold. Shut that TV
and take control of your self. If we
were able to set aside these 5 hours of our lives toward meditation and
spiritual pursuits, then, nothing more will be required for true
qualitative progress and for leading a serene, content life, with an
active mind (brought about by eliminating the junk from our mental
space).